Chapter 1: Introduction
Overview
In many parts of the world, sports betting is either highly regulated or illegal. It is defined as the
activity of placing a bet, or wager, on the outcome of a game, match or any other sporting event. Bets
can usually be placed on almost any sporting event happening anywhere around the world. They can
also focus on not only the outcome of the event, but on many different incidents or occurrences that
might happen along the way. The customers usually place their bets with a bookmaker, or in more
colloquial terms, a bookie. The advent of digital technology has made placing a bet easier than ever
before for punters and bookmakers have accordingly come up with a greater variety of bets to entice
them into their high street stores and/or onto their websites.
The total value of the global spor ts betting market is difficult to estimate because of the lack of
consistency in how it is regulated in some parts of the world. Sports betting is estimated to make up
about 13% of the global gaming market, which also includes lotteries, casinos, gaming machines,
bingo and other gaming. With about one third of the global gambling gross win, Asia is the biggest
market for gambling and sports betting in particular.
Some estimates put the value of the sports betting industry at between $700bn and $1trn, with 65%
of that estimated to be wagered on football (soccer). Illegal sports betting alone could be worth
$500bn globally according to some estimates.
Probably the fastest growing segment of the industry is the online/interactive/remote category which
for the purposes of this report is referred to as digital gaming/betting. Worldwide gross win from
digital gaming was just over €34bn in 2015 and was projected to reach over €51bn by the end of 2020
according to H2 Gambling Capital. Gross win from digital sports betting reached about €15.5bn in
2012.
When it comes to global digital gaming gross win by product genre, in 2014 according to H2
Gambling Capital, sports betting comprised 47% of the market.
The global market for digital gaming is forecast to maintain one-digit growth rates over the next
four years, and expected to reach a medium-high, double-digit number in billion Euros revenue.
One major trend in digital gaming is the use of mobile devices (see Chapter 3) and indeed operators
becoming almost platform-neutral (or ‘omni-channel’), recognising the different needs of customers
at different times of the day across all types of device. Some gaming sites report increasing shares
of their total revenues stemming from mobile and gambling search words, which are increasingly
originating from phones and tablets.
In-play remains an important offering for digital betting sites and ‘cash out’ options are becoming the
norm. One of the factors that has enabled the growth of in-play betting has been the ability to collect
and disseminate both sports data and odds quickly. In-play betting’s reliance on sports data however
could be one of its weaknesses in the coming years. The prospect of ‘betting rights’ and sports
organisations demanding fees in exchange for data rights could further hit the profitability of in-play
betting, which is already a relatively low-margin product. Financial results from 2015 show operators’
Digital Sports Betting 11